Happy New Year!

Mom, as I went to print off the letters to read at later time, I noticed the subject title of ¨Frankie¨so I had to read it just now. I know you don´t want to give me the news, but I´m glad you did. It´s funny I was going to ¨check up¨on him again in this letter, more as a joke… Not thinking he was actually going to die. I guess it´s not funny. Pretty sad in fact. I´m still crying a little. I really did like that guy. But you´re right, he´s comfortable and happy enjoying the company of grandpa :)

Thanks for your emails! They are happy for me :) Yes, I believe it is okay to email me, though I don´t think I can email friends back, just family. I think I will be able to send a few letters off today, but I am working on some good letters that will be more personal for the family, so it might be a while before I can get them sent. I heard it takes about 2 or 3 weeks for travel too, so… Mom and Dad, thank you SO much for your emails. They mean a lot to me, I find so much comfort in your words of love and encouragement. I love you so much, so so very much. I love my family, Cali and Geoff, Danielle, and EVEN Erik ;) I hope you´re all doing well. Thanks friends for your support and love. I think I´m pretty much the luckiest gal eva.

This week has been better. We had some previous investigators of Hna Alvarenga drop their date for baptism, and it was sad. But we found some new people who want to be baptized and seem excited about it. I hope we can keep good contact and can keep teaching them the importance of this step. A lot of times we´ll go and they seem pretty promising the first lesson but are never there when we go back for appointments. I´m still learning lots, I still struggle major in the speaking department. I have come to conclusion that oh well, I´m just going to have to feel like a dumb dumb for a little while longer. Who cares if people give me funny looks when I talk, right? I probably should have concluded this the first day I got here. But feeling dumb and sorry for yourself doesn´t ever do anyone any good. I had a funny experience the other day… We were on the street doing a contact with an old Chilean man, when a woman walked by and Hna. Alv, for some reason, stopped talking to the man and just started talking to the lady. Which leaves me alone, trying to communicate with old man farmer… remember what I said about the old men and how I can't understand a darn thing they say? Well, this man was no different, in fact it was a little worse because he didn´t have any TEETH.- I don´t think- because I looked! So he´d say something, and I´d take my best guess at what it is, and I´d say something, and he'd take his best guess at what I said and he´d say something…We were conversing, and neither of us had a clue of what the other one was saying. Hna. Alv said the spirit was probably carrying the message but I´m pretty sure it wasn´t. We laughed about it, she thought it was pretty funny, she seems to get a big kick out of some of the things I say… as she should. In a year, I´m excited to get a kick at a greenies expense ;) We meet a lot of people every day and sometimes it´s intimidating to invite ourselves into their homes to talk to them about Christ. I´m really grateful that my companion is so bold, or else I don´t know how far I´d get trying to teach with my level of aggressiveness. I´m learning a lot from her.

I´m so grateful that I am here, and I´m grateful for my purpose here, to invite people to Christ. It´s a wonderful thing.

PS HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Sorry it was kind of a sad one with Frankie´s passing. How is Kola without her other half? I had a good one, we stayed up till the hour new years eve (our bed time is at 11:30 so we didn´t stay up THAT much later) and then had a pillow fight to kick off the near year. Though it was hard, we all just wanted to go to bed…it was pretty pathetic. Haha, but I hope it was still a good one for everyone.

Time is up, but I love everyone so much! I will try to print off some pictures to send, okay?